In Chestnut Creek Cemetery stands an arch in memory of Peter Cooper Pinson, born in the settlement of Cooper but buried in far-away Glendale, Calif. Children playing about in the cemetery in the 1950’s and ‘60’s thought it strange that this man had a “marker” but no grave. The arch seemed elaborate to them, but on a cold, gray February day one can see that it’s a simple structure of concrete blocks holding one nice block of marble with an inscription.

Pinson was born in 1879 to Moses D. Pinson and Mary Ann Jones, the last of ten children. His siblings stayed on in the area, but Peter went to work with JC Penney and soon had the job of opening stores in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

A good portion of his pay was in the form of company stock, and through wise investment he became wealthy.

He and his wife along with their three children and their spouses enjoyed a life of travel to Hawaii, Europe, and Asia, places far removed from rural Alabama.

Pinson’s retirement years were spent in Beverly Hills then Florida and finally back in California, where he died in 1952.

Pinson provided a good life for his own family but also put children of other people through college, shared with his family back in Alabama and often gave to small churches. Two of those churches were Chestnut Creek Baptist and nearby Corinth Baptist.

He donated $2,000 in 1930 so that Chestnut Creek could build wings to house their Sunday School classes. At a later time he sent money to replace the roof.

His mother’s Jones family was from the Corinth community, so in the early 1950’s Peter sent money to help repair that church. According to Ann Vickers Byrd of New Mexico, Pinson’s only surviving grandchild, the family was not aware of most of his benevolence until after his death. She remembers him as “an extremely kind man who loved his family and loved hearing and telling good jokes.”

A small group of people gathering stories about the church and community connected with Jeanne Hardy Tipton of Gadsden, a granddaughter of Peter’s brother. She has done years of research on her family which she shared with the group and also put them in contact with her cousin Ann.

Because of these two women, more of the story of the man behind the monument is now known. The monument bears this simple inscription: “He is at rest in Glendale Calif. He lives here in good deeds done.”

The last sentence applies to many others resting in this old cemetery. Most of them were never wealthy, so their good deeds involved working on the church building, turning out to dig graves when the bell was rung to summon them, teaching classes, leading the singing, and raising their families.